Hydroxysafflor Yellow A - An Important Natural Pigment for Treating Metabolic Diseases

Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) is a chalcone compound extracted from safflower. A growing number of discoveries suggest that HSYA has a better effect on metabolic diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, which has led to increasing attention on development and utilization in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries. This review presents recent advances involved in the metabolic diseases and HSYA, and current evidence showing the importance of HSYA on metabolic signaling pathways, such as MAPK, PI3K/Akt et al. Although the research of HSYA metabolic regulation is only a beginning stage, it has already contributed to our current understanding of natural pigments. We also encourage further investigation to address the potential mechanism of HSYA under physiological and pathological conditions and further application in the pharmaceutical and food industries.